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Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are going to meet tonight in Munich in a potentially title-deciding match in the Bundesliga. They are the two biggest clubs in German football, and the match between them is known as “Der Klassiker”. Bayern are the most successful German club and won 28 Bundesliga and 5 Champions League titles.
Borussia Dortmund have also won the Bundesliga 8 times and 1 Champions League title. Bayern are also known as “the Bavarians”, as they are based at the Bavaria region in Munich. They have their home ground in the beautiful Allianz Arena. On the other hand, Dortmund play their home games in the huge Westfallenstadion.
There have been some players who have played for both of those German clubs. We would now take a look at the 4 players, who have done so since 2000.
#4 Robert Lewandowski
The Polish striker recently became the highest goal-scoring foreigner in the history of Bundesliga. He is currently playing for Bayern Munich but rose to prominence while playing for Dortmund. He joined Dortmund in 2010 and spent a few very successful seasons there.
Lewandowski is a complete striker with great heading skills, opportunism and shooting abilities. He is a very good penalty-box poacher, who can breach through any defence at the blink of an eye. He scored 103 goals in 187 matches for Dortmund and won 2 Bundesliga titles with them. Dortmund also won the runners-up medal in the UEFA Champions League in 2013, losing to Bayern in the final.
Lewandowski then made a switch to Bayern in 2014 and is still playing for them. He has been arguably even more successful for Bayern. Thus far, he has scored 184 goals in 233 matches for them. He has mostly played as a centre-forward in a 4-3-3 formation alongside wingers like Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben for Bayern.
Lewandowski remains one of the most lethal strikers in the world and has won 4 Bundesliga titles with Bayern.
#3 Torsten Frings
Frings rose to prominence while playing for Werder Bremen in the early 2000s. He was also a part of the German national team in the football World Cup in 2002. He joined Dortmund after the 2002 World Cup and played for them for a couple of seasons. He was a very good defensive midfielder, who could also play box-to-box.
Frings was known for his dour approach while playing in the midfield and was a very strong tackler. He failed to win any silverware with Dortmund but scored 12 goals in 63 matches for them. He was one of the most important members of the Dortmund team during his stint with them.
In 2004, the German signed for Bayern and spent a solitary season with them. He also won the Bundesliga title that season. Frings contributed by scoring five goals in 45 matches for them. He left Bayern in 2005 to join Werder Bremen again and played for them till 2011.
#2 Mario Gotze
Gotze rose to prominence while playing under Jurgen Klopp for Borussia Dortmund. He joined Dortmund in 2009 and played for them till 2014. He also won two Bundesliga titles and a runners-up medal in the Champions League in 2013. Goetze plays primarily as an attacking midfielder and famously scored the winning goals in the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina.
The 26-year-old made a move to Bayern in 2013 but did not play there for a long duration. He struggled to cement his position in the Bayern line-up and warmed the bench for a considerable period of time. He scored 36 goals in 114 matches for Bayern and again moved to Dortmund in 2016. However, he managed to win three Bundesliga titles with the Bavarian giants.
In his second stint with Dortmund, Gotze has been quite decent. He has scored 39 goals in 192 matches for them and remains one of the footballers to have won the Bundesliga with both the clubs.
#1 Mats Hummels
Hummels started his career in Bayern’s academy and made it to the senior team in 2007. However, he played in only two matches for Bayern before being transferred to Borussia Dortmund on loan. He joined Borussia Dortmund in 2008 and became the mainstay in their defence for quite a few seasons.
He won two Bundesliga titles with them, and also scored 25 goals in 309 matches. However, he chose to move to Bayern in 2016 and has been playing for them since then. The German has formed a great partnership with Jerome Boateng at the heart of Bayern’s defence and won trophies with them.
Hummels has the ability to lead the defence with his ability to read the game, clean tackling and good distribution skills. At the same time, he also has a great header on him and scored seven goals in 111 matches for Bayern.
Thus, Hummels has won the German domestic title with both the clubs and continues to be one of the better centre-backs in world football at the moment.
